Design work on the Apple /// started
in late 1978 under the guidance of Dr. Wendell Sander.
It was designed by committee - and
no one could really decide what they wanted the /// to be. It had to
be a business computer that would replace the Apple II. They agreed
it would have an emulation capability, but not completely. It would
have a new, more powerful operating system - which meant it was
incompatible with the older Apple II software except in the stilted
emulation mode. Few developers came on board to start - they were too
busy working on Apple II products and Apple did little to ensure
there would be new software packages to start. It had no fan and like
the II, its keyboard was attached to the case. It was heavy. And Dr.
Sander and his fellow developers were under orders to get it out the
door quickly. This was, in total, a prescription for disaster.
The Apple /// was officially
introduced at the National Computer Conference in May, 1980. Because
the machine was never properly tested there were almost immediate
problems when shipments of SARA started in the Fall .
Of primary concern: the chips would
pop out of their sockets after only a few hours (primarily due to
heat). This led to the famous "two-inch drop" where owners would pick
their machine up and drop it two inches to reseat the chips. Such a
short-term solution was not totally satisfactory, however, and Apple
ended up replacing every main circuit ("mother") board. (In fact,
Apple's policy through June, 1981 was immediate replacement - no
questions asked.)
And there were other problems - a
promised built-in clock/calendar chip did not work and there was very
little software (people complained "I spent $4000+ and got Visicalc
and a paperweight!")
The problems hurt Apple's
reputation. By December, 1981 Apple "reintroduced" the Apple III -- a
revamped system with all or most of the serious problems gone. But
the damage had already been done. The IBM PC was introduced in
August, 1981 - between the old III and the "fixed" III. And while the
PC did not meet immediate acceptance, it was helped along by the ///s
problems.
With the Lisa already out and the
Macintosh in development, Apple was unsure what to do about the ///.
The company finally decided to release an updated version, the Apple
III Plus - but it did not hit dealer's shelves until December 1983.
The /// Plus had a new //e-style keyboard and a few other upgrades
(power supply/video interlace) and was problem-free. Yet the entire
Apple /// line was discontinued only four months later! All in all,
some 100,000 machines were actually built.
Here's a visual timeline graph to
make things clear. Note that each notch in the graph represents two
months.
1980 |- |- |- <--------------- Apple III |- |- 1981 |- |- |- <--------------- IBM PC |- 1982- <--------------- Apple III (fixed version) |- |- |- |- |- 1983- |- <--------------- Lisa, Apple IIe |- |- |- |- 1984- <--------------- Apple III Plus |- <--------------- Macintosh |- <--------------- Apple IIc [Apple III discontinued] |- |- |- <--------------- Mac 512 1985- .
